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Pierogies, exams and lights!

I’m going to try to make this a quick post tonight; it’s been a long weekend of wine drinking, festival going and last hurrahs with good friends. Before I get into my weekend in Lyon, I’ll quickly fill you in about Poland and my week of exams (Blah to the latter!).

My weekend in Poland with Preeti started in Paris (alliteration for the win!) on Thursday evening. Our flight to Warsaw only cost us 7€, but it meant we had to fly out of Paris Beauvais – which is not an easy airport to get to. We took the last train out Thursday night from Lyon, and couch surfed for a very brief night in Paris, as we had to wake up at 5:15 to take two metros to catch the 7 am coach bus to Beauvais airport. We finally got into Warsaw at around noon, and found our hostel nestled right in the center of the Old Town. Our location was perfect, and we had a whole room to ourselves for 15€ a night – not bad! Friday we stuffed ourselves silly with pierogies – both savoury and sweet, and then napped off our food coma in our hotel room.
Saturday we did half of a free walking tour, which was interesting and we saw everything we wanted to see before deciding our toes would fall off from the cold if we were outside for any longer. We warmed up in a bakery with a Polish donut each (yum!) and then went back for yet another nap and some studying in our cozy hostel room.
Sunday we made our own walking tour, starting with the Castle, and stopping at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier while on the hunt for Chopin’s heart (which we never did find). We ate more delicious food on Sunday and then called it a night for one last bit of studying before our 12 hour day of travelling back to Lyon on Monday.

The rest of my week was a blur of studying and writing exams. By Thursday night my hand was about ready to fall off from the amount of writing I had done with it, but it’s starting to heal up after a weekend off. I wrote my French exam on Tuesday morning (which I passed, hurray!) and then my Contemporary Indian Society exam Wednesday morning, followed by my open-book Concepts of Law in the European Union exam in the afternoon. Then I came home to study for Thursday’s Comparative Literature exam, which was fine, but not as good as I had hoped it would be. Thursday night I had my last Avant-Gardes class, and then my last exam for that class is this Thursday, the 13th.

Friday night I went out with a group of girls to see la Fête des lumières, which was very impressive! I had been warned not to take any public transit because the 2 million toursits that come into Lyon make it very difficult to get around. But I was pleasantly surprised to find my way around the city pretty easily, even if sometimes we felt like a herd of sheep being directed by gates and cops. The light show in Vieux Lyon was amazing – I never could have imagined what a projector and some impressive lights are capable of.

Saturday I studied at Little with Mackenzie and Preeti, and had a very yummy lunch of Quiche and soup, followed by a decadent Red Velvet cupcake. We had plans to head out to the festival again Saturday night, but instead had a slumber party in my apartment with five girls crashing on two twin mattresses – and various other forms of mattresses made up of coats/yoga mats/scarves/etc.

Today was devoted to studying and packing. I went over to Kenzie’s to help her pack because she is leaving on Wednesday to head back to Texas, but that left me feeling pretty down. I’m not ready to say goodbye to the amazing friends I’ve made here in Lyon. It feels like we just met on the first day of SELF courses, and yet here we are packing up our things and having our last few nights together. It’s not going to be fun to say all these goodbyes (or see-you-when-I-have-travel-money-again) this week, but it is what it is. Plus in ten days I’ll be home surrounded by all my friends and family who I have been missing dearly in my life. Maybe they’ll start to fill the void created by being separated from friends I’ve practically been living with for the past three months. At least now I have a million more excuses to travel – there will always be someone I can visit once I have the money saved up again. Note to other wanderlusts out there – save your pennies, it’s money well spent, I promise!

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About Me – Siobhan Doody

I'm writing this blog to chronicle my experience as an exchange student living in Lyon, France. I am an English major at Carleton University, and will be entering my third year this fall. Yes, it's strange that I am an English student going to study in France, but I've always loved the allure of living in France, a country full of rich history, culinary acclaim, and fashion icons. Follow along as I discover France, Europe, and maybe a bit of myself. xox, B.